Story+1985-08-27+Toronto,+ON

´´Oh, this is a song about....falling through the bottom....´´
 * 27.08.85 Toronto, Canada, intro to ´´Johnny 99´´**

´´We were on....the first part of our American tour....we were down in Texas.....and down there you saw a lot of folks that´d come down there from up north.....down from Detroit, Pittsburgh....they were going down south looking for some work in the oil fields or on the oil rigs....then when they got down there, the price of oil dropped....there wasn´t no jobs.... they´d end up sleeping in tents on the side of the highway....or sleeping in their cars at night with their wives and their kids....with no work and no place to go....and cops just telling them to move along....this is called ´Seeds´....´´
 * 27.08.85 Toronto, Canada, intro to ´´Seeds´´**

´´Oh, yeah, so how´s everybody tonight? (cheers) good....good, it´s nice....it´s a nice night..... I remember when I was growing up I used to think that my, my Pop was so old and it´s funny now ´cause I think back on it and when I was like 15 or 16, he was, he was younger than I am now (chuckles) you know, and.....and it seems funny how like one of the things he always wanted me to do was explain myself to him (chuckles) his question was always ´What do you think you´re doing with yourself?´ (chuckles) and, uh....I could sit there and I could never tell him, you know, I guess I didn´t understand what he was doing with himself either (chuckles) but uh....I guess he spent most of his life living....in the shadow of a dream so....´´
 * 27.08.85 Toronto, Canada, intro to ´´The River´´**

´´You sound good out there....that´s good singing....them Canadians can sing, man, they can sing....damn, oh, this is a song about getting old....oh yeah....it´s about Father Time sneaking upon you, time´s winged chariot....oh, I´m 35....that´s old, man.....sometimes I lay in bed at night....I only sleep with my guitar....my wife, at first she didn´t like it but she got used to it ....you gotta take the whole package....oh yeah, I lay in bed at night, my back hurts, oh, great God almighty (chuckles) oh, now, the Big Man, he´s older than me....he´s way up there but somehow he always maintains his youthful beauty....it´s a secret, I don´t know how he does it.....(chuckles) anyway, in the end.....it all ain´t nothing but glory days....are you ready, band? (?)....are you ready, people? (cheers)....´´
 * 27.08.85 Toronto, Canada, intro to ´´Glory Days´´**

´´(the beginning of the intro is missing from the source tape)....I was telling the folks last night that were here that, uh....seems that every place you go on tour, when you mention the name of that place, everybody cheers....let´s try it out, alright: Toronto (cheers) see, that works everytime, you see (chuckles) and I guess I figured out that the reason people cheer when you mention the name of their town is they must be proud that that´s where they´re from....and if they´re proud that that´s where they´re from, it would seem, it would seem then to make sense that they´d be interested in making it a better place to live (?)....and tonight in the audience we´ve got some folks from the Daily Bread Foodbank.....and what a foodbank is, is, uh, they get hold of food that would other, otherwise be wasted, people donate food to ´em....and then they get it out to the agencies that serve the people that need help....people who´ve been hit by unemployment, single mothers that are raising their kids alone, that need some help, old folks that don´t make it through the month, little kids....and, uh, they´re here in your town....and I guess this is a public service announcement ´cause they can use your help....and....what it is is that these are the people that are out there every day making some of these ideas that I´m up here singing about tonight a reality in people´s lives....and they don´t get a lot of people cheering for ´em or people making a big deal over ´em but they´re out there every day in some small but very, very important way trying to make sure that we get a little bit closer, inch by inch, to that Promised Land.....and, uh, without them what I´m doing up here tonight is just a bunch of words so I guess I´m bringing them up to say that they´re called the Daily Bread Foodbank and if you go out into the lobby tonight, you´ll be able to see a phone number for ´em where you can reach ´em if you´re interested and you can help them out in whatever way you can and they´re here in Toronto trying to make it a better place for all of its citizens, everybody...so....if you´re proud of your hometown....here´s your chance to do something about it, anything you can do....´´
 * 27.08.85 Toronto, Canada, intro to ´´My Hometown´´**

´´I always remember growing up....my folks always working so hard.....I remember my dad coming home at night....when he worked in the plastics´ factory....and, uh, sitting in the kitchen....I remember my mom always going down to the finance man....borrowing money for Christmas, paying it back just in time to borrow money for Easter, paying it back just in time to....borrow money for school clothes....always, always, always....but it never seemed to, she never let on like it bothered her....but I always remember it bothered my old man.... and he´d sit in the kitchen at night thinking about everything he wasn´t ever gonna have and be able to get us....and he´d get me thinking like that too....and I´d lay up in bed feeling like if something didn´t happen....that if something didn´t change....feeling like someday I was just gonna....like if something didn´t happen, someday I´d just.....I felt like I´d just....felt like ....like I was just gonna....like I was just gonna.....´´
 * 27.08.85 Toronto, Canada, intro to ´´I´m on Fire´´ **

´´Now this is for our old fans out there.....and this is a story about something....that happened a long, long time ago....in a place not too far from here....here we go....now, upon a time....I stood stonelike at midnight.... (....) Now, there I was....I was still in high school....I was doing real bad, doing bad in my studies, never paying attention in class, I´d always kind of look out the window, daydreaming all the time, you know....so finally they sent me down to the guidance counsellor....and I went down, I walked in and he said ´Mr.Springsteen, what´s your problem?´....I said ´Well, Sir, well, Sir, it´s like this, you see, I don´t know what I wanna do with myself, I´m not interested in anything, I don´t have any faith in anything, I don´t have any hope, I don´t have any, uh, close interpersonal relationship with a member of the opposite sex, I don´t have, uh (chuckles) he said ´Man, that’s too big a problem for me, you better go home and talk to your folks’....so I went home, walked in the house, my dad was sitting in the kitchen, I said ´Pop, I got something I gotta talk to you about, like, I´m getting into a lot of trouble here, you know, like I don’t know what I wanna do with myself, I don’t know what I wanna be when I get out of school, I don´t have any faith in anything, I don´t believe in anything, I don´t have any hope, uh, uh´....and he sat there and he said....´Get me another beer out of the icebox’ (chuckles)....so that was it, I decided I was gonna do myself in, finish myself off, I was gonna hitchhike to the beach, jump into the ocean and drown myself.....so I hitchhiked down to Asbury Park....before I was gonna drown myself, I had to go to the bathroom so I went into the men’s room of this little bar and there up on the wall it said ´Advice and answer to all problems, call this number´....so I went out side, got into a phone booth, put a dime in, dialled the number....it rang once....rang twice....and then I heard (Clarence: ´Hello´)....and it was some guy named Clarence ‘He-who-knows-all’ Clemons on the other end of the line.....so I started to tell him about my problem and he said he thought he could help me out and he gave me his address.....I hitchhiked over....walked up on the porch, knocked on the door.....the door opened up....we kinda stood there and checked each other out for a minute.....we decided that we’d make a good team and we became partners (?)....now, now, Clarence, he´d been having some troubles of his own and he´d gone to see the gypsy and he´d bought this map to the secret of the world and he said that if we followed this map at midnight, we´d find the answer to all our troubles....so that night we got in Clarence’s Oldsmobile, we packed up a whole bunch of peanutbutter-and-jelly sandwiches, yeah, and we started driving south down Route 9, down deep into the pines of New Jersey.... when we started driving, the rain started falling and then a hailstorm hit us and then it started snowing and then, and then a heatwave struck....and then a tornado came whipping across the highway and then the roof blew off the car and then we got two flat tires and then the engine block cracked and then the carburetor went and then, and then, and then the radio broke, oh!....so there we were....by the side of this dark, spooky road and according to Clarence´s map what we were looking for was just on the other side of those woods....so into the forest we went....it was scary and dark in there....there were sounds coming from everyplace.....the moon was hanging high, we could hear all ´em werewolves out there (crowd howls) we heard like homicidal cows mooing in the fields (crowd moos) we heard mad dogs barking (crowd barks) we heard, we heard, uh, the Jersey Devil out there (cheers) Big Man, Big Man, like, you ain´t never heard of like nobody getting ate alive in New Jersey or nothing? like no wild beasts? no, like, I ain´t ever heard of nobody getting like ate alive, no, no killer rabbits or killer chipmunks (?)....are you sure?....yeah? like we´re alright here.... I think I hear something behind us, I think I hear something behind us....oh, oh....I hear something behind us, I hear something....(?)(Bruce and Clarence are ´´sobbing´´ and then they yell out) and we turn around and there was this big man-eating bear but instead of.... instead of eating us alive and making us his dinner, he was acting kind of friendly and he said, he said that he wasn´t, he wasn´t vicious, he said that he was just lonely, that he´d escaped from the circus....(a part of the story is missing here from the source tape)....then the clouds pulled away from the moon....and there in the clearing....we saw the answer to our quest....and then all of a sudden we knew that everything was gonna be alright....because.... because.....when we touched.....´´
 * 27.08.85 Toronto, Canada, intro to ´´Growin´ Up´´**

´´I wanna take a minute and thank everybody for coming down to these shows that we did here in Toronto....I wanna thank you guys, I know some of you guys traveled a pretty good distance to get here....anybody from Buffalo out there tonight? (cheers) yeah....but uh..... this is, I guess, the last time we´ll be getting up here for a while....and uh....I just wanna thank you for, uh, for the support that you´ve shown our band over the past year and a half ....I wanna thank all you old, old fans out there....for your support, thank you....this is, uh, this is my favorite Elvis´ song....I wanna do it for youse tonight.....I tried to meet Elvis once ....we were playing down in Memphis....and it was late at night and a taxi cab....brought me out to Graceland and I stood in front of the gates that had those guitar players on the front, I seen a light in the second story window and I jumped over the wall and started running up the driveway (chuckles) and uh....which, I always tell people, I think it was probably a pretty stupid thing to do at the time ´cause I hate, I hate it when people do it at my house (chuckles) in the middle of the night (chuckles) but uh, anyway, there I was, I ran up the driveway, I got to the frontdoor, a guard came out of the woods and asked me what I wanted and I said ´Is Elvis home?´....and uh....and he said ´No, he´s in Lake Tahoe,´ so I said ´Oh yeah, but you see, like, I got a band too and I´m a guitar player and Elvis was my inspiration´ and I told ´em I had my picture on the cover of Time and Newsweek (chuckles) but uh....I don´t think he believed me, he took me by the arm and put me back out on the street so....but it was, it wasn´t too long after that a friend of mine called and told me that Elvis had died and I remember it was hard to understand how somebody whose music came in and took away so many people´s loneliness and gave so many people a reason to live, it was like he came along and whispered a dream in everybody´s ear and then you dreamed it (chuckles) you know....so he deserved better than he, than he got....anyway....you gotta be careful ´cause it´s easy to let the best of yourself slip away....so I´d like to do this for you tonight, wishing you all the longest life with the best of absolutely everything....´´
 * 27.08.85 Toronto, Canada, intro to ´´Can´t Help Falling in Love with You´´**

´´You´re looking good out there now....alright....let me introduce my partners-in-crime, on the piano, Professor Roy Bittan....on the vocals, Miss Patti Scialfa....on the drums, the Mighty Max Weinberg....on the organ, Phantom Dan Federici....on the bass guitar, Mr.Garry W.Tallent....on the guitar, Mr. Nils Lofgren....and on the sax, a man celebrated around the world, a man so good he´s better than himself, Big Man Clarence Clemons on the saxophone ....alright, boys, let me express my soul.....´´
 * 27.08.85 Toronto, Canada, intro to ´´Ramrod´´**

´´Are you ready to testify? (cheers) then let´s go.... (....) Alright....ah....oh....I´m exciting myself (chuckles)....wait a minute now (chuckles) here we go.... (....) Slipping into overdrive now....Big Man (Clarence: ´Yeah?´) how you feeling now? (Clarence: ´Oh, Big Man grooving´)....how´s the band doing?....you guys ain´t tired yet or nothing, right? no? hell, no!....how´s everybody in the stands over there? (cheers) you alright? you ain´t tired yet, are you? (crowd: ´No´) how´s everybody in the stands over here? (cheers) now what about you cats way in the back upon the hill there? (cheers) alright (chuckles) now how´s everybody down here on the dancefloor? (cheers) good!....because before I go, there´s one thing I got to know....before I leave, there´s one question I need an answer to....I can´t go back to New Jersey without the answer to this question....I came all the way here to Toronto to find out the answer....and what I need to know is....I mean what I got to know is....I mean what I need to know in my soul is....I mean what I´ve got to know tonight is....I mean what I need to know from you tonight is....I mean what I´ve got to know is....I mean what I need to know is....I mean the only thing I´ve got to know is, is, is, is....Do you love me?....´´
 * 27.08.85 Toronto, Canada, intro to ´´Twist and Shout´´**

´´We didn´t come all the way here to go home this early, wait a minute now....yeah....got one more song for you, here´s wishing you a happy summer....´´
 * 27.08.85 Toronto, Canada, intro to ´´Sherry Darling´´**

//Compiled by : Johanna Pirttijärvi//